something a little more complex artistically and intellectually. To show something you can't see on TV leads inevitably to unusual material." Corman says the ideas he submitted to Columbia were a biopic of Baron von Richthofen, a story of the St Valentine's Day Massacre and an adaptation of Only Lovers Left Alive. (He would end up making the first two films for other studios). Eventually he agreed on three films. The first was The Southern Blade, which he was to produce along with Harry Joe Brown. The others were Iwo Jima (about the Battle of Iwo Jima) and Robert E. Lee, a biopic of the famous general. (Later Robert E. Lee would go to United Artists and the proposed third Columbia film would be a war film, The Day They Let the Prisoners Out, by Peter Bogdanovich.) In June 1965 the title of The Southern Blade was change to The Long Way Home. Filming was meant to start in September 1965. However, Columbia and Corman clashed and Corman wound up returning to AIP where he directed the hugely successful The Wild Angels. "The main difference between the minors and the majors is the amount of freedom allowed", Corman said. He and the studio came to terms once they agreed to give him a free hand with the script. Corman had the script rewritten by Robert Towne with whom he had collaborated a number of times, most recently on The Tomb of Ligeia (1965). Casting In April 1966 Glenn Ford signed to star. The following month Cliff Robertson signed to co star. Eventually Robertson dropped out and was replaced by George Hamilton whose fee was a reported $100,000. Inger Stevens and Max Baer Jr also joined the cast. Warren Beatty had been offered the lead role but turned it down. However he was impressed by Towne's writing, and later hired the writer to do uncredited work on the script for Bonnie and Clyde, which led to a long collaboration between the men. The film was Harrison Ford's first film with a credited role; despite not having a middle name, he was billed as "Harrison J. Ford" (where the "J" did not stand for anything) to avoid confusion with the silent film actor of the same name. Principal photography Filming started in June 1966 in Kanab, Utah. By the end of the month, Corman had left the project and been replaced by